Planetary Nebulae
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The Beautiful Dying Star

"Garden-variety stars like our Sun live undistinguished lives
in their galactic neighborhoods, churning out heat and light for billions
of years. When these stars reach retirement age, however, they become
unique and colorful works of art. As ordinary, sun-like stars begin
their 30,000-year journey into their twilight years, they swell and glow,
shrugging off their gaseous layers until only their small, hot
cores remain.

The ejected gaseous layers are called planetary nebulae,
so named in the 18th century because, through small telescopes, these
gas clouds had round shapes similar to distant planets such as Uranus
or Neptune.

The gaseous debris glows like a fluorescent design, producing objects
with striking shapes and names like "The Ring Nebula" and "The Spirograph
Nebula." Astronomers have recorded more than 1,000 of them in our galaxy."